Overall, Kittley was disappointed in the finish of his men's and women's teams. But at the same time, he was excited about the future of the Red Raider program.

The Tech men, who with 17 athletes had the most national qualifiers of any other team, finished the national meet in 16th place with 17 points. Last season they scored 261/2 points to place a school-best eighth.

Kittley

On the women's side, Tech scored just eight points for a 29th-place finish.

"I thought we would do better, but I think a lot of it came down to inexperience," Kittley said. "We had a lot of kids who were here for the first time and haven't really competed at this level. That experience is really going to pay off in the future."

In fact, of the 17 men that competed for Tech this week, only four - Matt Stewart, Jonathan Johnson, Bobby Most and Tyree Gailes - are seniors.

Kittley acknowledged that replacing those four veterans will be tough, but he also knows he has a strong foundation in which to build next season.

Leading the way should be junior Andrae Williams, who placed third in the 400 in his first-ever national meet. Williams ran a 44.90 - a school record - in the final and also helped anchor the 1,600-meter relay to a seventh place finish and a school-record time of 3:01.69 in the preliminaries.

The relay team also included juniors Johnny Jacob, Michael Mathieu and Terry Beard.

Tech also returns the services of junior Seth Harris, who placed sixth in the pole vault and sophomore Marlon Odom, who finished sixth in the 110 hurdles.

"(Williams) proved to us that he can compete at the big meets," Kittley said. "We're really excited about the kids that we have coming back next year."

The Tech women are in similar shape. Only five of the 14 athletes (Brionne Yosten, Licretia Sibley, Shereefa Lloyd, Stefanie Calhoun and JaToya Moore) that competed at nationals are seniors.

Leading the way for the Lady Raiders should be Tori Polk, who finished sixth at the national meet in the long jump. She also has been a member of two all-American 1,600-meter relays.